


12 Oct 2026 · 28m · 5 chapters

How to build an intentional personal brand that generates trust, connection, and attention to open career and business opportunities, using a reverse-engineered strategy rather than “viral” content tactics.
Grace Andrews, former brand director at Diary of a CEO (helped build it into a massive podcast/audience). Later left to build her own work, using visibility to become known for her expertise and to secure opportunities.
Everyone already has a personal brand (reputation), but personal branding puts you in the driver’s seat. Trust is collapsing into smaller circles while AI makes fake signals harder to detect, so being a trusted, visible individual matters. A brand is repeated touchpoints that create expectations.
Her roadmap led to speaking on a US stage within six months. She cites Stephen Bartlett hiring her in 2021, then promoting her to head of content and brand director (300k cross-platform). Examples include “piano tuner” and “roof cleaning” scenarios showing long-term mindshare.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes.
Explore the importance and strategy of building a personal brand.
“Ever hit a wall in the middle of the day and a third coffee just doesn't do it anymore?”
Explore the importance and strategy of building a personal brand.
“You already have a personal brand, whether you like it or not.”
Learn how to define your personal brand territory by understanding who you are, what you stand for, and what you refuse to stand for.
“But for the sake of getting to some really clear actions today, we're gonna focus on content because it will most likely become the foundation you build up from.”
Explore the six actionable steps to define and achieve your personal branding goals effectively.
“Step one is getting stupidly specific about the goal.”
Discover strategies to effectively build and position your personal brand.
“We started this episode in a trust crisis.”

Get the gist, explore an idea or ask about something said.
On Working Hard with Grace Beverley, what are the key points of this episode?
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.
0:00Mod.com is changing the way people battle excessive fatigue. Ever hit a wall in the middle of the day and a third coffee just doesn't do it anymore? Here's what's actually happening. Coffee only briefly blocks adenosine, the chemical that tires you out. When it stops working, your system is flooded and you crash. Modafinil is a prescription treatment that works in a completely different way. Modafino works by stimulating multiple receptors in the brain associated with wakefulness, including dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, histamine, glutamate, and orexin. It's a more complete solution that gives you 10 to 12 hours of steady focus and energy.
0:43To learn more, go to mod.com. Fill out your intake form, meet with a licensed provider, and if approved, ModAlert ships straight to your door. Go to mod.com to get started. That's M-O-D dot com.
1:25plan and device payment purchase or separate agreements with separate terms service plan for watch or iPad required additional terms apply for all offers. Harvard Business School Executive Education delivers a world-class learning experience that energizes aspiring and established changemakers. Prepare for the next elevation for your organization and for yourself. Learn more at hbs.me slash breakthrough. That's hbs.me slash breakthrough.
2:05what is up i'm grace beverly and welcome back to working hard the podcast shared guidebook on how to improve your own life and achieve what you actually dreamed of doing because life's too short for boring podcasts and bad advice what is up and welcome back to working hard if you are brand new here it is lovely to have you And if you've been here for a while, you will know that you have landed in the middle of something very important Very important for you quite important for me mostly important for you and your future So i'm going to give you a quick bit of context This episode is essentially part of a series that I am running across my maternity leave It's called the future self series and the whole thing is built around one idea Which is that the most reliable way to actually build the life you want is to reverse engineer it But if you've not heard the earlier episodes I'd actually go back to episode one and start there because all of this is basically designed very specifically almost as a free course to be able to get you from episode one to episode 12.
2:57And by the time you're at episode 12, you're going to be very, very clear on what your future is going to look like and the plan that you have for your every single day. And we've reverse engineered the big internal stuff. So your mindset, your identity, your habits, your health. But today we are turning a little bit outward and we are going to be talking about how to build your own personal brand. And you might think, Grace, I don't need to have a personal brand. And to that, I would say, you already have one. Every single thing you've done in your career, every post you've made on LinkedIn, everything you've shared, every platform you're on, every project you're working on, every move in your CV is building some kind of reputation.
3:34All of that is part of your personal brand. So the question isn't whether you have one. The question is whether you are in control of it and whether it is doing the work for you. I felt so strongly about having this episode in the series because building a good personal brand is the biggest thing you can do right now to fast track your career. It is the biggest multiplier you can apply to everything you are doing in terms of your income, in terms of your trajectory, in terms of all of this. So if we're looking at your future self and we're looking at reverse engineering your life, let's look at maybe we can get you there faster.
4:04So I've designed this episode for whether you are a freelancer, whether you are building something of your own, whether you are deep in a corporate career, whether you are creating content. I firmly believe that a personal brand is honestly one of the biggest multipliers you can have for your career. And it's not about vanity. It's not about follow account. It is about what happens when an opportunity comes to you and how to make those opportunities come to you, how to get into the rooms where those opportunities are even talked about, whether that's like a job or a freelance gig or even a coffee with a more senior person.
4:35My personal brand has now opened up doors for me to co-own companies, for me to invest in businesses I love where they would never have been available to the public otherwise. and they've come to me through my personal brand in terms of what I can actually add, where I might have been doing that work anyway. I might have been doing all of that and not have been visible enough to be able to be visible to the right people. And this isn't just about like building a social media following. It's not about trying to be a content creator. Obviously that is a huge supporter to building a personal brand, but it is about being known for the things that you want to be known for and therefore getting the opportunities that the person who's at the end of your five-year plan would be given in order to be able to actually get there.
5:14And so for this episode, I have Grace Andrews, who's going to be taking you through what a personal brand strategy looks like. So Grace Andrews came into the limelight when she was brand director at Diary Over CEO. She obviously built that into a massive, massive podcast. And after building everyone else's brands, she decided to take the reins and take the leap to build something of her own from scratch. However, I think one of the most impressive things she did there was to make herself incredibly visible. the visibility she brought herself and her personal brand as brand director at the diary of a ceo has enabled her to be able to leave that to be able to build things of her own to be able to be known for her expertise i was very pleased when she said yes to contributing to this episode and as always within this series she has given some very specific actionable work for you to do which is gonna be in the newsletter which will be sent to you tomorrow if you are listening to this live on the day of release i will pop the link to sign up to that in the description so now it is time for me to hand over i hope you really enjoyed the episode You already have a personal brand, whether you like it or not.
6:11We all have one. Our personal brand is really just another way of saying reputation, whether good, bad, trustworthy, credible or not. As the old saying goes, your reputation precedes you in every room, every conversation, every job, every relationship. The difference between us all having a personal brand and personal branding is that with personal branding, you're in the driver's seat. Not only are you in charge and building intentionally, it becomes so much more than your reputation. It becomes a business strategy, a magnet that pulls you towards your goals at an unprecedented rate. To be clear, I'm not here to teach you how to become a creator.
6:47My name is Grace Andrews, and I'm thrilled to be here as your cover teacher for this Future Self series to explain why and then how intentionally building a personal brand, whatever your role, will allow you to accelerate towards your goals and reverse engineer your best life. And I've used personal branding to secure every single opportunity in my story. It's kind of like having a secret weapon that feels a little illegal but everybody has access to it. I guess they just don't know how to use it to their advantage and that's what I'm here to teach you about today. So I'm going to share with you how you can reverse engineer your goals through personal branding to make yourself a magnet for the opportunity that feels so out of reach right now.
7:24But look, context is everything and I I want to start by providing a little insight into why I believe a personal brand is no longer a nice to have, but a critical building block for anyone looking to gain attention and ultimately trust. So I want to kick things off with where we actually are right now, which unfortunately is in the middle of a bit of a trust crisis. The Edelman Trust Barometer, the world's largest annual trust study, just published its 2026 findings. And the headline is that society isn't just losing trust in institutions anymore, it's actually sliding into something they're calling insularity.
7:54which means 7 in 10 people now say they're unwilling or seriously hesitant to trust anyone who doesn't share their values, their background, or where they get their information. So trust isn't eroding evenly, it's collapsing inward into smaller and smaller circles of people we already agree with. And it's not just the public that's feeling this, the people running brands are misreading it too. PwC asked business executives how much they think their customers trust them. Then they asked the customers themselves. 90 % of executives believe they're highly trusted. Only 30 % of customers actually agree.
8:27That is a 60 point gap. And it's been growing, by the way, not shrinking. Now layer on the attention problem because trust and attention are obviously entangled together. We're not just distrustful, we're overloaded. When people are given too much to process, too much content to consume, they don't slow down and evaluate more carefully what they want to watch. They reach for a shortcut. We all do that. We all reach for shortcuts. And the shortcut people reach for when they genuinely can't evaluate everything in front of them is trust. And it's trusting in someone specific. Think about it. When you go to a new country and you go to a new city and you have a thousand choices in front of you for where to eat, what do you actually do?
9:07Maybe you go into Google and you read the reviews. Maybe you search for your AI tool. Maybe you head to your favorite food creator and check their highlights and check for their recommendations. Maybe you go into your group chat and you ping a message asking for the recs there. You reach out to people you trust as the shortcut to making a decision for where to eat when you're overwhelmed with choice. And then we add AI into the mix. AI hasn't just added more content to an already flooded feed. It's managed to crack the exact signals people used to rely on to shortcut trust decisions in the first place.
9:38There are now AI generated reviews, recommendations and content that we can't tell what is real and what is not. So people literally don't know what to trust. And so that brings us to today. Trust is being squeezed from two directions at once. Institutional and interpersonal trust are fracturing, whilst AI has simultaneously made it cheat to fake the exact signals people relied on to shortcut their decisions. Which means being a trusted, visible individual right now isn't just nice positioning. It's filling a gap that's opening up faster than any institution can close it. And trust isn't a soft metric anymore.
10:11Edelman's own brand research also shows that trust is now as much of a purchase consideration as price and quality. I'm just going to say that again. Edelman's own brand research found that trust is now as much of a purchase consideration as price and quality. So if trust is doing as much work in someone's decision to buy from you, hire you, follow you as the price tag or the quality of the product itself, the real question becomes how do you actually build it on purpose? Which is where I want to get really precise about what a brand even is because I think the word gets thrown around so loosely it stopped actually meaning anything.
10:46So here's the definition that I work from. A brand is the repetition of touch points and the feelings a customer experiences across them. It's not a logo, it's not a tagline, it's really not what the business says at all. It's the accumulated residue of every interaction someone has with you repeated enough times that it hardens into an expectation. A personal brand is the exact same mechanism wrapped around a person instead of a company. Built deliberately, touchpoint by touchpoint, to generate three specific things in the person on the other end. That's trust, connection, and attention. Which, if you were paying attention a minute ago, are exactly the three things institutions are currently fading to provide at scale.
11:27Now I know, I know, there are a lot of people who talk about personal branding. It's become a bit of an icky buzzword, I feel it too, especially on LinkedIn. There'll be people who tell you how to write LinkedIn posts using viral frameworks and engagement pods to generate views. And I'm here to tell you that that is platform hacking and certainly not personal branding. In 2021, Stephen Bartlett hired me as his personal social media manager. Six months later, I became his head of content and then went on to become brand director, overseeing all of the content across the brand, meeting millions every day, whilst simultaneously building my audience to 300 ,000 cross-platform.
12:00Neither ever involved viral LinkedIn frameworks. Both required highly intentional strategic decisions based on how we wanted to be positioned and what we wanted to achieve as a business. It was literally never about views. It was about credibility, authority, and positioning in order to achieve business outcomes, which is what the LinkedIn gurus seem to misunderstand. Where they're focused on views and likes, we're out here reverse engineering our goals strategically through content. See the difference? And I'm going to break down with you here today my easy to follow blueprint to reverse engineer the goals you want to achieve using personal branding and I know this works because this is the exact roadmap I use myself.
12:37At the start of the year I publicly declared my goal and the strategy I was going to use to achieve it. My goal was to speak on stage this year in the USA and using my roadmap I was able to achieve it six months into the year and I love talking about this topic because anyone can apply this thinking to accelerate their business goals no matter what they are. Okay but before we dive into the roadmap I just want to be clear on one thing. A personal brand is so much more expansive than your social content. Your personal brand is every moment or in brand world language we'd say touch point where your desired customer or community experiences you.
13:11That could be in person, in articles, in emails, at events, on a panel, your website, podcasts, it literally can be anywhere your customer experiences you. Every single interaction has to ladder up to the same feelings, goals and strategy because every great brand is built on repetition and I'm giving you permission right now you can go grab a piece of paper and do this exercise right now go and put yourself in the center of that piece of paper so you could put your brand or in this case yourself in the center of that and what you're going to do is mind map out every single time your customer comes across you so you can start to get a more top-down view on how expansive that might be and how many moments of interaction you have that you can control.
13:51I think you'll probably be surprised how many moments there are in your world that need to be laddering up to this same feeling and this same identity. That gives you a really good perspective to get started. But for the sake of getting to some really clear actions today, we're gonna focus on content because it will most likely become the foundation you build up from. And it's one of the greatest levers you can pull when it comes to visibility. So your personal brand isn't all about content, but it is what we're gonna focus on today. So to get started, we need to build what I call your territory.
14:19So this isn't about choosing your platforms yet. It's not about a niche. This is the actual ground you're standing on. The space you're claiming as unmistakably yours before anybody else gets to define it for you. Your territory is built from three things. So number one, who you are. This is not your job title. This is not your platform. The thing you're actually genuinely great at, have experience in and love to do. I'm gonna say something a little bit controversial here that the LinkedIn gurus are probably gonna come at me for. You actually do require some work to have been done here. You're going to need evidence to claim a territory and build something meaningful.
14:53And of course to gain people's trust down the line. But if you're at the beginning, the very start of your journey, that's okay too. We all have to start somewhere. Just don't claim to have done something or created something that you haven't. Because that is where Impostor Sidro is going to creep in. Your territory right now will be small. And it would make sense to focus on building out your evidence first to expand the territory that you can operate in. Okay, so stage two of building your territory. What do you stand for? That's the question you've got to ask yourself. The beliefs, the standards, the way of operating you're not willing to compromise on, even when it would be easier to.
15:23I guess another way of saying this would be your why. Like what drives you to keep going when everything feels like it's against you. You really have to get clear on that to be able to define the area that you're going to occupy with your personal brand. Okay, so we've got who you are and what you stand for. And then number three, when building your territory, you've got to ask yourself, what don't you stand for? And I can't emphasize how important this is. Knowing exactly what you refuse to be associated with, the shortcuts you won't take, the audience you're not trying to please, the version of success you don't actually want, understanding that does more to define your brand than almost anything else.
15:59Boundaries are brand strategy. Saying what you're not is what gives shape to what you are. It also literally what marks the edge of your territory. Without edges, it isn't a territory. It's just open ground that anybody can walk into and you don't want that. So put those three things together, who you are, what you stand for, and what you refuse to stand for, and that is your territory. That's your foundations. And the reason we have to do that first before we get into the roadmap for building your content is because your territory is the world your roadmap operates inside of. Without it, a goal is just a task floating in open space.
16:32With it, every single step you take towards that goal is claiming more ground. So before you go any further, please, please get honest about your territory. Write it down, go through those three questions and figure out the land that you're going to occupy. And now we can get into the roadmap. Six steps. I'm going to walk you through every single one of them using my own goal, which was speaking in the US. So you can see exactly how this works in real time, not just in theory, which I think is really important that we're getting to actions that you can apply today to get started. I've got big news.
17:04I switched to Verizon and got the new iPhone 18 Pro. I can keep my old phone. Can I also get the latest iPhone every year? Shh, anything else? Verizon, let me choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on them. Everybody listen up. Switch to Verizon and get the new iPhone 18 Pro now. No trade in needed. And the latest iPhone every year with Simplicity Plan. Plus, choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on us. Simplicity Plan with Simplicity Pro required. Plan and device payment purchase are separate agreements with separate terms. Service plan for watch or iPad required. Additional terms apply for all offers.
17:34Mod.com is changing the way people battle excessive fatigue. Ever hit a wall in the middle of the day and a third coffee just doesn't do it anymore? Here's what's actually happening. Coffee only briefly blocks adenosine, the chemical that tires you out. When it stops working, your system is flooded and you crash. Modafinil is a prescription treatment that works in a completely different way. Modafinil works by stimulating multiple receptors in the brain associated with wakefulness, including dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, histamine, glutamate, and orexin. It's a more complete solution that gives you 10 to 12 hours of steady focus and energy.
18:16To learn more, go to mod.com. Fill out your intake form, meet with a licensed provider, and if approved, Mod Alert ships straight to your door. Go to mod.com to get started. That's mod.com.
18:35So let's dive into step one. Step one is getting stupidly specific about the goal. Most goals are way too vague to ever reverse engineer. People are like, I want more clients. I want to grow my brand. I want to be seen as an expert. None of that is actually a goal. It's a wish and we can't be building a strategy around a wish. I can't anyway. My goal wasn't to get more visible in the US. It It was very specifically to speak on a stage in the US this year. That's a specific outcome, a specific location, and a specific deadline. The second a girl gets that specific, something shifts. You can suddenly see exactly who's in charge of giving it to you, and exactly what they'd need to see from you first.
19:15Which leads me very nicely into step two. Find the room, not the crowd. This is where most personal branding advice falls apart. People think their audience is as many people as they can reach. And I'm here to tell you the harsh truth that it's not. Your audience for the purpose of this goal is the handful of people who actually have the power to hand it to you. So using myself as the example, that wasn't 300 ,000 followers. It was a very short specific list. The people who book stages in the US. The ones who literally decide who gets to speak. So ask yourself for your specific goal. Who is actually in the room?
19:49Not people who might like my content or everyone I can get to see this. It's not a vague audience. it's the three five ten people who could genuinely say yes to opening that door for you so just to note in my roadmap there is no step dedicated to deciding which platforms you need to be on because ultimately this is actually determined by this step here the people you need to reach you absolutely do not need to be everywhere all at once that is an incredibly overwhelming task you simply need to be in front of the people who need to see you so for my goal specifically that looks like a combination of linkedin instagram and youtube because i know that's why the bookers are looking for their next speaker but for another goal it's sub stack and maybe linkedin only for another one it might literally just be youtube shorts so when people ask me do i need to be on every platform what platform do i need to be on my answer is almost always no and my question back is tell me what you're trying to achieve and who needs to see you for that to be achieved and then your platforms will be very obvious from there step three of the roadmap is reverse engineering what they need to believe about you this is the step almost everyone skips they jump straight to the content and it's the one that actually matters the most.
20:54Once you know who's in the room you have to get honest about what they need to believe about you before they'd ever say yes. So personally I call these signals. What are the signals you need to omit to get them to believe you are the person they need for the job they're looking for? Someone booking a stage isn't going to take a risk on a person they've never seen speak for example. So what would they need to believe? They need to believe that you can hold a room, that you have a clear point of view, not just like a title, that people are actually engaged when you speak, that you have strong opinions and a strong point of view.
21:23There are loads of things they need to believe, but you need to write that list for your own goal. What would the person who can hand it to you need to believe about you first before they give you the opportunity? Let me throw in another example. Maybe you're a freelance designer looking to expand your client pool and your goal is very specifically, because we know it has to be specific, to book two high ticket health and wellness brands on Retainer for the next few months. So the signals I think you need to omit are experiencing that specific industry, evidence of experience in said industry, innovative ideas, industry knowledge and expertise and problem solving probably because that's what the client needs.
21:59They need you to solve their problems. Remember this isn't content ideas yet, it's the signal stack which will then allow you to build the content and the formats from there. But that is step four. Step four is all about building content that proves these signals and honestly this is where I see 99 % of people go wrong. They think they're building a brand because they're posting content. But every piece of content is an attempt on goal. And these people aren't even facing the right direction. They post because they feel like they're supposed to, or because they want to get views and they want to go viral.
22:28But there's no line back to an actual goal. Reverse engineering flips that completely. Every piece of content becomes a deliberate proof point against the list you just wrote. Need people to believe you can hold a room? Then footage or clips of you doing exactly that need to exist and be visible. Need to be known for a specific point of view, not just a title? Then stop posting generic tips that anyone could say if they took your username away. And start publicly building one opinion repeated until it's unmistakably yours. Need proof that other people already trust you? Then who you've worked with and what you've already built needs to be visible too.
23:02Think case studies and reviews and sharing client feedback. Every touchpoint earns its place because it answers something on the list. I think people are often really surprised when I say that every single piece of content I post across all of my platforms is working towards one of my three to four goals I have at any one time. I don't just post things for the sake of things because they feel good, because I'm excited by a trend. I post very intentional pieces of content because they are moving me step by step towards the goal I'm looking to achieve. And that brings me to step five, which is that it makes the whole thing measurable when you post intentionally.
23:35rather than posting content and assuming likes and views are the metrics for success for every piece of content it guides you to know what you actually measure because there is so much to measure right like when we go on these social media platforms there are so many metrics available to us and we can very easily be derailed by the vanity metrics and the ones we think we're meant to care about so just for my example of speaking in the us i was looking at two things very specifically one was actually comments proving people are engaged with the points i'm discussing which is great for bookers to see.
24:03They want to see that people are engaged with the content I'm sharing and having conversations around it. So success for me was highly engaged comments and conversation in the comments. Secondly, it was DMs and inquiries. If I received a message from someone trying to book me for a talk off the back of a piece of content that I put out for a booker to book me, that is ultimate success. And I can't tell you how many pieces of content might look by generic metrics, like they've flopped because maybe the views aren't super high or it hasn't done 100 ,000 likes, but they've resulted in inquiries for talks or consultancy, which is ultimately how I measure business success because that is my revenue driving activity.
24:41You've got to know what you're measuring to define if the post or the content has been successful or not. And I promise you nine times out of 10, that metric is not the views. So know for each goal what success looks like and how you're measuring and tracking towards it. So not to get derailed and even disheartened by some of the vanity metrics. So that brings us to step six, which is repeat until it compounds. The least sexy advice out there, but the hard facts that nobody ever wants to hear. You just have to keep going. Remember the definition from earlier. A brand is the repetition of touch points and the feeling someone experiences across them.
25:15One great piece of content proving one point on your list does nothing on its own. But the same message showing up consistently across touch points is what turns into a reflex in someone else's mind. You've got to show up consistently to occupy that space in someone's head, repeatedly and that that occupation of someone's mind is a thing that eventually gets you chosen six months after i said that goal out loud that i wanted to speak on stage in the u.s i was on stage in the u.s not because i got lucky because i built a very deliberate visible case for why i deserve to be there months before anyone in that room ever knew about me let alone said yes and maybe that's like the step 6.5 or the bonus point to this blueprint the people you're trying to reach might not even know they need your services yet.
25:59The invisible layer you're capturing in your territory with content is what makes it so unbelievably powerful. And I'll give you a really, really random example. I don't know why this came to mind when I was planning this episode, but I think what I really want to emphasize is this works no matter what your role is, no matter the industry. So maybe you're a piano tuner. It was, I was trying to think of something that I don't need in my life right now. I don't have a piano, so I definitely do not need a piano tuner. You're a piano tuner and you're looking to expand your radius of clients. So your signals are showing evidence of your work through tuneful before and after videos maybe.
26:31And maybe your territory you occupy is that you always play a very specific song when you know the tuning is done. I don't have a piano, I don't need a piano tuner, but you capture my attention. And then you occupy space in my mind. So if any of my friends have a piano, any of my family, in fact anyone I see online with a piano who one day happens to ask for piano tuner recommendations, I'm gonna send you their way. same thing goes I don't know roof cleaning I don't currently need my roof cleaning but if I saw a series from a roof cleaning company that made I don't know roof cleaning into a reality tv episode and they captured my attention and they got me really interested maybe it's like things I overheard on the roof I'm gonna choose you when I need you because I've been caught in your attention trust and connection territory the land you occupy you've consumed my brain it's not always about immediate results when it comes to personal branding it's about occupying space in someone's brain for when they do need you.
27:24And the same goes for me. Bookers don't always need a speaker right when I'm posting, but they're always quietly browsing, keeping an eye on people for when they do. That's who I'm creating for. So when the opportunity arises, they choose me. And I run through that roadmap exercise every quarter to track how I'm progressing towards my goals based on my measurements of success. I then tweak accordingly, adjust my goals if they're achieved, and reset with the learnings and insights. Because what you don't want to do is keep repeating something if you've tried it for a few months and it's not working.
27:55You need to be flexible, innovative and obviously adapt, especially in the world of content where the platforms are constantly evolving too. We started this episode in a trust crisis. Institutions fracturing, attention collapsing, AI making it cheap to fake the exact signals people used to rely on. And on the other side of that crisis sits in this enormous gap, one that's opening up faster than any institution can close. That gap is your opportunity. Not someday, right now, today, while most people are still posting content with no direction, no signals, no territory, just hoping something sticks.
28:28You don't need to become a creator. You don't need a viral framework or 100 ,000 followers or the grabbiest hook in the world. You need your territory. You need a specific goal. You need to know the signals that get you chosen and you need to build content that proves them on purpose until it compounds. This was never just about the people actively searching for you right now, it's about occupying space in someone's mind long before they ever need you. So that when the moment comes, whether they need a designer or a consultant or a speaker or a piano tuner, you're the one name that comes to mind.
28:58Six months after I said my goal out loud and created this roadmap to get there, I was standing on a stage in the US that used to feel completely out of reach. And I can't emphasize to you enough how many stages in my journey I can refer back to this strategy for creating the open door opportunity that I was then able to walk through. So what I would love you to do today is go back through this roadmap. Start from the very beginning, setting your territory, building that ground out, and then work through the roadmap stages. I promise you once you work through this, the content ideas will come flooding.
29:30I've worked with so many people who feel so stuck with their content and they feel really directionless. And then when you map it out like this, their brain and their piece of paper is literally flooded with ideas. It's the same for me. Whenever I feel stuck, I come back to this roadmap process. I don't want you to just do this exercise and never ever think about it again I want you to follow it for 90 days and then in 90 days time I want you to come back to it and I want you to tweak and amend measure and see what's happened because I guarantee it's moved you closer towards your goals than any piece of content you posted this year so far because as we know you already have a personal brand whether you like it or not the only question left is whether you keep leaving it to chance or whether starting today you finally build it on purpose and turn it into the magnet I told you at the start of this episode it could be.
30:10The secret weapon that feels illegal, that everyone has access to, and that you now actually know how to use. That's the end of our episode. I had literally so much fun being your cover teacher Grace. Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a pleasure. All of my references for more reading, more videos to watch, if you want to dive deeper into this topic, we'll be in the Working Hard Newsletter. You can find the link and all of the details in the description for where to find me going forward. But I'll see you later. right I hope you loved that episode with Grace Andrews I have to say it's one of the episodes that I've been most excited about within this series and it's been something I've been thinking about a lot recently I hope you found it as actionable and practical as we really intended it to be so a huge thank you to her for contributing to today's episode and such a big thank you to you for listening to this episode of the future self series by listening you have supported the podcast and our entire team during my maternity leave we will be doing a full breakdown of all of the tips and the practical side this week on the Working Hard Instagram.
31:06And I also wanted to send the team my rules for personal brand crafting too. So that's all going to be over on the Instagram. Otherwise, I will see you next week where we're going to be talking all about resetting your body from the inside out and that you'll be able to maintain from now until you actually reach that future self because you're not going to get there if your body and your health and everything to do with that is not carrying you there every single day.
31:33I've got big news. I switched to Verizon and got the new iPhone 18 Pro. I can keep my old phone. Can I also get the latest iPhone every year? Anything else? Verizon let me choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on them. Everybody listen up. Switch to Verizon and get the new iPhone 18 Pro now. No trade-in needed. And the latest iPhone every year with Simplicity Plan. Plus, choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on us. Simplicity Plan with Simplicity Pro required. Plan and device payment purchase are separate agreements with separate terms. Service plan for watch or iPad required. additional term supply for all offers.
32:04Guessing is for game shows, not your business. Workday is the enterprise AI platform for HR, finance, and IT, with AI grounded in your context to get work done and done right. It's a new Workday. You didn't just say, how can I provide these investments? How do I holistically provide everything? How do I bring in the legal, the accounting, all this, and do it at a price point and no one else is doing it? Learn more about how we approach wealth management at creativeplanning.com slash integrated. Thank you.
We're half way through!! This week's episode of the Future Self Series is all about building your personal brand. And before you say "but I don't have one," you do.
Every result that pops up when someone googles your name, every conversation you have, everything you do publicly is already shaping how people see you. The real question is whether you're in control of it, or just looking into the void and hoping for the best.
It's something I've thought about a lot recently, so to break down what an actual personal brand strategy looks like, I've brought in Grace Andrews (yes, the other Grace), who was a founding member of the team that took The Diary of a CEO from 8,000 YouTube subscribers to over nine million. She's now building her own thing from scratch and documenting every step, which is basically reverse engineering her dream life in real time.
I really hope you enjoy!
+
SIGN UP TO THE WORKING HARD NEWSLETTER FOR GRACE'S RECOMMENDATIONS: https://www.workinghard.co.uk/welcome
+
GRACE ANDREWS
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graceandrewsss/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@graceandrewsss
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@graceandrews7
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-andrews1/
Her substack, Community Service: https://communityservice.substack.com/
+
FOLLOW THE PODCAST
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workinghardpod/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@workinghardpodcast
+
DILEMMA SUBMISSION
If you'd like to submit any dilemmas to the podcast to be answered in the bonus episodes, please send them to [email protected] with the subject beginning DILEMMAS or DM us @workinghardpod on instagram!
+
MY LINKS: https://gracebeverley.komi.io/
+
RETROGRADE, SHREDDY, TALA and THE PRODUCTIVITY METHOD are my own businesses, therefore any mention of them - whilst not being a sponsorship - is monetarily endorsed. As usual, sponsorships do not change my opinions nor my honesty, but I will always disclaim to make sure motives are clear 😊
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.







